Proposals to build offices and homes a short distance from Chobham Common were narrowly passed by planning chiefs on Wednesday.

Members of Runnymede Borough Council's (RBC) planning committee voted nine to six in a named vote in favour of the hybrid application for part outline and part full planning permission at the former DERA site in Chobham Road. The applications will now be passed to the Secretary of State.

At the Civic Centre in Addlestone, councillors deliberated for an hour whether to defer, reject or approve outline planning permission for office use, a data centre and 200 homes, plus full planning permission for 108 new homes in the green belt.

Members were told RBC planning officers initially felt the plans did not meet the requirement of 'very special circumstances' to justify development in the green belt, however on full examinations of the proposals they deemed them exceptional.

"Very special circumstances do exist which outweigh the harm caused by development and [loss of] openness," said planning officer Joanne Hollingdale.

Foxhills councillor Howard Butterfield considered it "dangerous" for the borough to grant approval ahead of that decision.

He said: "I think we should reject this until the core strategy is resolved one way or another.

"If the Secretary of State approves the core strategy, the requirement to show very special circumstances is no longer necessary and I think that is very salient.

"I think we are pre-determining the Secretary of State's decision and I don't think we should be.

"We can't have one set of rules for developers and big businesses and one for residents."

Councillor John Edwards agreed, adding: "We're not being asked to approve anything tonight, we're being asked to endorse something and then let the Secretary of State make the decision, and he has our core strategy so it is two things going to the same set of hands.

Runnymede Borough Council's head of planning, Ian Maguire, said the application had been made with the site's green belt status in mind, exhibiting special circumstances to outweigh the harm, and warned a proposal for the site without green belt status would be very different.